Kalup Linzy: Identity Politics, COVID-19, and the Future of Performance Art

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Kalup Linzy: Identity Politics, COVID-19, and the Future of Performance Art Kalup Linzy: Identity Politics, COVID-19, and the Future of Performance Art By Anni Irish • 01/08/21 1:00pm Kalup Linzy has been making waves in the art world for over a decade. Linzy, who works primarily as a video and performance artist, has helped to challenge racial and gender stereotypes through the art he creates while also thinking through larger issues of representation. Informed by his Southern upbringing, the church, and influenced by soap operas he grew up watching, Linzy has become a force to be reckoned with in the performance art space. I Put a Spell on You Paula Sungstrong As Da Art World Might Turn Kalup Linzy Linzy describes his work as “an ongoing art house soap opera with musical, melodramatic, comedic, socially conscious performances with yours truly as the orator the majority of the time.” Playing with elements of theater, video, performance, music, the kind of art that Linzy produces is hard to define as just one thing. It has this enigmatic quality combined with his humor, honesty and unique take on queerness and gender that sets him apart from other performance artists. And as a gay person of color, his life experiences have informed the art he creates. “Growing up, I didn’t have openly gay role models. They were all straight and mostly religious. As I came of age, I drew from that, but also realized I would have to create the other. Being black and gay has made me more self-aware. I no longer see it as a crutch. I remember in my late teens, early twenties I had a dim outlook on life. Once I stopped battling myself, my days became brighter. That’s actually when I found my voice,” said Linzy. This kind of self-awareness and demanding representation in social spaces has been a driving force behind the art he makes. Since moving to New York City in 2003, Linzy forged his own path in the art world with much success. Today, the Floridan native’s work has been featured in major collections such as the Studio Harlem Museum, the Whitney, MoMA, and more. He has been the recipient of major grants and fellowships such as the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the Creative Capital Award, an Art Matters grant and countless others, and most recently he was named a Tulsa Arts Fellowship. These accolades underscore the impressive career he has made for himself while also making him one of the most well-known performance artists working today. Utilizing soap opera’s format Linzy has made it his own and in the process, while tapped into larger cultural archetypes. Linzy’s early works began to generate a buzz in the early 2000’s. In All My Churen from 2003 (A spoof name of All My Children) for example viewers were taken into Nucuavia’s world as she dealt with the murder of her partner. Set against the backdrop of Nucuavia’s family including, Taiwan, her openly gay twin brother who had seems preoccupied with hookups and wine, viewers were offered a glimpse into Linzy’s world. In 2005, he released Play Wit de Churen which focuses on Katonya, a sympathetic, complicated character with many sides. In As da Art World Might Turn from 2006, Katonya evolved to mirror Linzy’s own life and many of the issues that come with the demands of the art world and openings. The storylines are often absurd, hilarious, and entertaining but are challenging larger stereotypes in the process. His work explores themes of longing, desire, race, and queer identity, through the characters he portrays. Within these pieces and others Linzy writes, directs and stars in them while also offering a larger social commentary on gender, sexuality, and interfamily relationships. Linzy, who is often the main protagonist in his short videos and films has played a variety of characters, many of the characters over the years have been female identified. In his performances Linzy can be seen in drag, usually with a wig on, his facial stubble noticeable, and in character. In 2010, Linzy became cemented in pop culture when he made his debut on ABC’s General Hospital. This was a natural role for him on multiple levels and was an extension of the work he had been creating. Linzy was even able to make a sort of mainstream crossover when in 2011, he began an artistic collaboration with James Franco. This took the form of several live performances, as well as a music and film project. That same year was also marked with impressive commission from the San Francisco Museum of Art which came in the form A Heavenly Act, an opera by Italian composer Luciano Chessa. From there Linzy’s work has evolved and has expanded on much of the earlier video series he created. Linzy has carved out his own space as an openly gay man who is creating art that is tapping into his own experiences, feelings, and outlooks on the current sociocultural moment. Linzy has created a host of characters over the years through his video work and he has continued to be influenced by a variety of pop cultural and social icons. In a recent piece, Linzy can be seen in drag, performing a version of Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How to Be Free” as Paula Sunstrong. Linzy’s distinct vocal stylings can be heard amidst a backdrop of black and white images of him dressed in several dresses in various outdoor and indoor spaces. He can be seen sitting at the piano with a perfectly done updo and earrings similar to a Nina Simone album cover from the 1960s. In another image, Linzy is depicted standing outside on a balcony. And in another picture Linzy’s can be seen sitting on the steps of a church clad in a vintage style dress sitting next to a man. The video montage flashes over the screen while his rendition of “I Wish I Knew How to Be Free Plays.” There is a vintage look to the images, but it is also referencing the specificity of this moment. The art world, like many other social spaces, is coming to terms with many injustices that marginalized groups have faced for decades. Following protests that erupted this summer across the world with the Black Lives Matters Movement in response to the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tamir Rice, and countless others, as well as the lack of diversity in many corners of the country and the 2020 election there is a lot to unpack. When asked about it Linzy said, “Thinking about some of my experiences, I am not sure how “safe” it actually is. At times, I feel safe and then sometimes I don’t. It really boils down to the company you keep and who you surround yourself with. If the country is divided, why can’t the same be said for the art world? I’ve come to learn that many people in the art world are oppressors or the oppressors’ right hand and don’t realize it.” J’ai Des Sentiments by Kalup Linzy Kalup Linzy He continued, “Or maybe they do…The art world prides itself in exclusivity. What happens when everyone is treated equally? What happens if everyone’s work has the same value? I also mean monetary value. Who’s on the top then? If there is no top, does that mean the bottom fell out? Yes, we deserve equality, but that’s not how the art world, this country, or most societies were built. It will be interesting to see how things play out. I’m not saying it is impossible for all to thrive. Just don’t underestimate those who are in power but fear the unknown.” Linzy, like many artists, is currently navigating a new pandemic world and this has extended to his work. Linzy had to reconfigure the way they have been making work and turning to other platforms via social feed to collaborate and work. “I haven’t traveled since March. I’ve done all my visiting artist gigs online. My live performances have been pre-recorded with no audience. I’ve had several online exhibitions, all virtual. My approach has pretty much been going back to the basics. When I first started, most of my video works were created in isolation,” said Linzy. Linzy also expanded the way promoted his work by trying to reach a larger audience. Early on Linzy did a lot of collaborations with artists he already knew and decided to up his game with marketing. While he was already running Facebook and Instagram ads in the US, he decided to take a more global approach during the pandemic. “I thought, why just promote in the States? Everyone is at home. Whoever has a phone, and a computer is probably on social media. I was nervous about it, but said, “Why not?” It’s not like I was inviting them to an art opening they couldn’t actually show up for,” added Linzy. In November, Linzy took part in the 2020 edition of the Performa Performance Arts Festival but this took a different turn given the current realities due to COVID. For Performa, Linzy created a pre-recorded set of songs with an accompanying band (the piece also came out of a commission he received from the New Orleans Film Festival). Linzy’s work is currently on view as part of an online video exhibition through Performa called Lean. The show is guest curated by the Studio Harlem Museum Associate Curator Legacy Russell and features the work of 7 artists in total.
Recommended publications
  • Qurrat Ann Kadwani: Still Calling Her Q!
    1 More Next Blog» Create Blog Sign In InfiniteBody art and creative consciousness by Eva Yaa Asantewaa Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Your Host Qurrat Ann Kadwani: Still calling her Q! Eva Yaa Asantewaa Follow View my complete profile My Pages Home About Eva Yaa Asantewaa Getting to know Eva (interview) Qurrat Ann Kadwani Eva's Tarot site (photo Bolti Studios) Interview on Tarot Talk Contact Eva Name Email * Message * Send Contribute to InfiniteBody Subscribe to IB's feed Click to subscribe to InfiniteBody RSS Get InfiniteBody by Email Talented and personable Qurrat Ann Kadwani (whose solo show, They Call Me Q!, I wrote about Email address... Submit here) is back and, I hope, every bit as "wicked smart and genuinely funny" as I observed back in September. Now she's bringing the show to the Off Broadway St. Luke's Theatre , May 19-June 4, Mondays at 7pm and Wednesdays at 8pm. THEY CALL ME Q is the story of an Indian girl growing up in the Boogie Down Bronx who gracefully seeks balance between the cultural pressures brought forth by her traditional InfiniteBody Archive parents and wanting acceptance into her new culture. Along the journey, Qurrat Ann Kadwani transforms into 13 characters that have shaped her life including her parents, ► 2015 (222) Caucasian teachers, Puerto Rican classmates, and African-American friends. Laden with ▼ 2014 (648) heart and abundant humor, THEY CALL ME Q speaks to the universal search for identity ► December (55) experienced by immigrants of all nationalities. ► November (55) Program, schedule and ticket information ► October (56) ► September (42) St.
    [Show full text]
  • 33 Participants Selected for Atlanta Contemporary's ATLBNL
    For Immediate Release 33 Participants Selected for Atlanta Contemporary’s ATLBNL Atlanta Contemporary presents – ATLBNL On view: August 27 – December 18, 2016 Public Opening: Saturday, August 27, 2016 from 7 – Midnight (in conjunction with ART PARTY) ATLANTA —July 18 —Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (Atlanta Contemporary) announces the 33 artists participating in the return of the Atlanta Biennial. With a roster of artists at varying points in their careers and with varying artistic practices– ATLBNL brings entirely new voices to the galleries by presenting not only the visual arts, but also book arts, film + video, fiber arts, literature, performance and music + sound. Previous Biennials – regardless of locale, curator, artists, or even the name itself – trumpeted the idea that many exceptional and relevant contemporary artists call the South home. The 2016 Atlanta Biennial further upholds this truth. “This Biennial brings together four curators with distinct points of view and curatorial methodologies,” noted Veronica Kessenich, Executive Director at Atlanta Contemporary. “They found common ground in their combined interest to exhibit individuals and collectives who have never before participated in the Atlanta Biennial. While the participants represent 8 states from across the Southeast, they do not relegate themselves to any specific sense of geography or space rather, together, their work examines the current state of contemporary art and contemporary issues.” Tue–Sat 11am – 5pm Thu open late until 8pm ATLBNL endeavors to champion these artists and their work while Sun 12pm-4pm simultaneously re-contextualizing Atlanta Contemporary’s Mon Closed commitment to our mission to engage the public in the creation, 535 Means St.
    [Show full text]
  • CHAPERONE This Program Was Funded in Part with Public Funds 10 June – 29 July, 2009 from the New York City Department of Cultural EFA Project Space Affairs
    CHAPERONE This program was funded in part with public funds 10 June – 29 July, 2009 from the New York City Department of Cultural EFA Project Space Affairs. Additional support provided by the Carnegie CHAPERONE Corporation and Materials for the Arts. Ian Cooper & Michelle Levy Organizers SARA GREENBERGER RAFFERTY Angie Keefer Graphic Designer Beverage Sponsorship provided by Magic Hat LUCAS 10 JUNE Kelsey Mohr Chaperone Seamstress Brewing Company. Shannan Hayes Program Fellow ALEX BAG Mark Demos AV technician The creative process is essential to shaping society. 18 JUNE GRANDMA’S BOY EFA is dedicated to providing artists across all Artists disciplines with space, tools and a cooperative ANNA CRAYCROFT Alex Bag, Beth Campbell, Ian Cooper, forum for the development of individual practice. We 24 JUNE THE CENTURY OF THE SELF Anna Craycroft, Amy Granat, k8 Hardy, are a catalyst for cultural growth, stimulating new IAN COOPER Kalup Linzy, Sara Greenberger Rafferty interactions between artists, creative communities, 1 JULY SCREAM 3 and the public. Acknowledgements AMY GRANAT Artists’ galleries: Elizabeth Dee Gallery, EFA Project Space, a multi-disciplinary contemporary 8 JULY VENOM AND ETERNITY Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, Tracy Williams LTD, art venue, encourages creative expression and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Taxter & Spengemann, new interactions in the arts. By collaborating with k8 HARDY Rachel Uffner Gallery. organizations and individuals to present a variety 15 JULY FREAK ORLANDO of programs including exhibitions, performances, Film distributors: Criterion Pictures, USA, Inc., RDF screenings, workshops, and conversations, we CHAPERONE KALUP LINZY Rights, Re:Voir Vidéo, Swank Motion Pictures, Inc., aim to generate an ongoing dialogue about the 22 JULY DESPERATE LIVING and Ulrike Ottinger Studio.
    [Show full text]
  • Artists & Allies
    signs and symbols: artists & allies III participating artists adam broomberg (b. 1970 Johannesburg, South Africa) is an artist, activist and educator. He currently lives and works in Berlin. Adam is one half of the critically acclaimed artistic duo Broomberg & Chanarin. He is a professor of photography at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HFBK) in Hamburg and teaches in the MA Photography & Society program at The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, which he co- designed. He has had numerous solo exhibitions, most recently at The Centre Georges Pompidou (2018) and the Hasselblad Center (2017), among others. His participation in international group shows include the Yokohama Triennale (2017), Documenta, Kassel (2017), among others. His work is held in major public and private collections including Centres Pompidou, Tate, MoMA, Yale University and Stedelijk Museum. In his spare time, Adam destroys marble monuments, makes cricket cages, absurdist collages and pottery. He is the contemporary Patrick Swayze. jen denike (b. 1971) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Her video, performance, collage and installation work has been exhibited internationally at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; The Brooklyn Museum; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville; Julia Stoschek Collection; MoMA PS1; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm; Participant Inc; 54th Venice Biennale; Garage Projects, Moscow; Art Basel Miami Film Sector; Franklin Street Works, Stamford; Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai; MOCA Toronto; MACRO ROMA; and CCS Bard Hessel Museum. Select commissioned projects include Capri by Night, Schauspiel Köln Opera House, Bombay Beach Biennale, LAND Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Creative Time, Performa Biennial, Faena Art and FairPlay.
    [Show full text]
  • Brooklyn Bred 2
    2014 NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL Brooklyn Academy of Music Alan H. Fishman, Brooklyn Chairman of the Board William I. Campbell, Vice Chairman of the Board Adam E. Max, Bred 2 Vice Chairman of the Board Karen Brooks Hopkins, President Curated by Martha Wilson Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer Featuring: Clifford Owens (Oct 16) Dynasty Handbag (Oct 17) Pablo Helguera (Oct 18) Lighting Design by Lenore Doxsee RUN TIME: Approx 1hr (no intermission) DATES: OCT 16—18 at 7:30 & 9pm LOCATION: BAM Fisher (Fishman Space) Season Sponsor Time Warner Inc. is the BAM 2014 Next Wave Festival Sponsor Major support for theater at BAM provided by: The Francena T. Harrison Foundation Trust Stephanie & Timothy Ingrassia Donald R. Mullen Jr. The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund The SHS Foundation The Shubert Foundation, Inc. #BROOKLYNBRED BAM Fisher 2014 NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL About the Show MARTHA WILSON Curator, Performer (A Forum for Performance Art, Oct 16) Martha Wilson is a pioneering feminist artist and gallery director who over the past four decades has created innovative photographic and video works that explore her female subjectivity. She has been described by New York Times critic Holland Cotter as one of “the half-dozen most important people for art in downtown Manhattan in the 1970s.” In 1976 she founded Franklin Furnace, an artist-run space that champions the exploration, promotion, and preservation of artist books, temporary installation, performance art, as well as online works. She is represented by P.P.O.W Gallery in New York and has received fellowships for performance art from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, Bessie and Obie awards for commitment to artists’ freedom of expression, a Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts, a Richard Massey Foundation-White Box Arts and Humanities Award, and in 2013 received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University.
    [Show full text]
  • Hilary Harkness: Painting Arrested Ambiguity at FLAG Art Foundation
    Adrian Margaret Brune: Hilary Harkness: Painting Arrested Ambiguity at FLAG Art Foundation http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adrian-margaret-brune/hilary-harkness_b_2648475.html February 12, 2013 Hilary Harkness: Painting Arrested Ambiguity at FLAG Art Foundation Posted: 02/12/2013 11:24 am The now renowned artist Hilary Harkness arrived at the Yale University Art School -- during a time of pervasive identity politics -- without one. John Currin had just graduated, leaving Yale professors and critics agape with his mash-ups of Renaissance craftsmanship against sexual and social satire. Contemporary darling Matthew Barney had come armed with "Drawing Restraint 7" -- installations built on the relationship between self-imposed social resistance and individual creativity. And Ann Gale, Marc Trujillo and Malerie Marder were in their initial attempts to discover and undress the human psyche in naked scenes of people and places. Harkness came to the prestigious school with no other objective than to learn how to paint. Without an agenda, she started making self-portraits, drawing herself over and over, each time placing her face in a different presentation. "Then I got bored," Harkness said touring the gallery of the FLAG Art Foundation where her new solo exhibition of nearly impossibly detailed paintings of a world inhabited by complex, inter-related and fated relationships opens on February 8th. "Yale didn't nurture me, but gave me a basic tool kit; getting paint to cleave to the canvas; understanding the purpose, limits, and benefits of painting mediums; and creating the illusion of space. "Outside of Yale, the Master of Osservanza Triptych -- the works of il Sassetta -- opened the door to painting narratives in a simple and easy-to-understand fashion." Maybe to Harkness, but not to her fans and patrons.
    [Show full text]
  • Nathaniel Mary Quinn
    NATHANIEL MARY QUINN Press Pack 612 NORTH ALMONT DRIVE, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90069 TEL 310 550 0050 FAX 310 550 0605 WWW.MBART.COM NATHANIEL MARY QUINN BORN 1977, Chicago Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY EDUCATION 2002 M.F.A. New York University, New York NY 2000 B.A. Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2016 M+B, Los Angeles, CA 2015 Back and Forth, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL 2014 Past/Present, Pace London Gallery, London, United Kingdom Nathaniel Mary Quinn: Species, Bunker 259 Gallery, Greenpoint, Brooklyn 2013 The MoCADA Windows, Museum of Contemporary and African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Brooklyn, NY Artist Salon, Private art gathering and opening, Brooklyn, NY 2011 Glamour and Doom, Synergy Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2008 Deception, Animals, Blood, Pain, Harriet’s Alter Ego Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 2007 The Majic Stick, Rush Arts Gallery, Curator Derrick Adams, New York, NY The Boomerang Series, Colored Illustrations/One Person Exhibition: “The Sharing Secret” Children’s Book, written by author LaShell Wooten, The Children’s Museum of the Arts, New York, NY 2006 Urban Portraits/Exalt Fundraiser Benefit, Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY Couture-Hustle, Steele Life Gallery, Chicago, IL 2004 The Great Lovely: From the Ghetto to the Sunshine, Five Myles Gallery, Curator Hanne Tierney, New York, NY 612 NORTH ALMONT DRIVE, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90069 TEL 310 550 0050 FAX 310 550 0605 WWW.MBART.COM GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2016 Still/Moving: Photographs and Video Art from the DeWoody Collection, Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL like·ness, Albertz Benda, New York, NY 2015 Unrealism, organized by Jeffrey Deitch and Larry Gagosian, Miami, FL Russian Doll, M+B, Los Angeles, CA 5 x 5: Other Voices, Litvak Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel M+B, Los Angeles, CA American Survey Pt: I, Papillon Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Here He Come: Black Jesus, Rawson Projects, Brooklyn, NY Driscoll Babcock Gallery, New York, NY 2014 Ballroom Marfa Benefit Gala, Prince George Ballroom, November 10, New York, NY.
    [Show full text]
  • University of South Florida Master of Fine Arts
    UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA MASTER OF FINE ARTS With more than 200 Master of Fine Arts programs in the country, what’s unique about the one at the University of South Florida? Perhaps comments from a national evaluation and accreditation visiting review team best provide a response... “The MFA in Studio Art at USF is a conservatory-style program of exceptional quality. The work routinely produced by faculty, graduate and undergraduates is world-class, and the atmosphere of intimacy and ease of human interaction is both distinctive and rare. The sense of belonging expressed by faculty, staff and students was palpable. The amount of space available... particularly studios, is exceptional.” Our vitality springs from our laser focus on just doing one thing without compromise: Developing and refining an intense, transformative studio practice learning experience for our community of students. While we maintain highly productive interdisciplinary relationships with other programs on campus, we do not offer degrees in the design fields, for instance. This is virtually unheard of at either private art schools or multifunctioning university art departments. Each year all studio faculty meet for a retreat to discuss and implement changes to enhance our already progressive MFA–and make it even more relevant to the discourse and issues that are emerging in the larger, globalized contemporary art world. We are solely dedicated to graduating artists with courage, intellectual rigor, and curiosity that will thrive as their impact defines the future. For each change we ask ourselves a single question: Will the alteration fundamentally improve the education of our students? As a result of this self-critical approach to revision, we are actually performing as artists..
    [Show full text]
  • The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine Summer/Fall 2014 Studio Magazine Board of Trustees This Issue of Studio Is Underwritten, Editor-In-Chief Raymond J
    The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine Summer/Fall 2014 Studio Magazine Board Of Trustees This issue of Studio is underwritten, Editor-in-Chief Raymond J. McGuire, Chairman in part, with support from Elizabeth Gwinn Carol Sutton Lewis, Vice-Chair Rodney M. Miller, Treasurer Creative Director Teri Trotter, Secretary The Studio Museum in Harlem is sup- Thelma Golden ported, in part, with public funds provided Dr. Anita Blanchard Managing Editor by the following government agencies and Jacqueline L. Bradley Jamillah James elected representatives: Valentino D. Carlotti Kathryn C. Chenault Copy Editor The New York City Department of Cultural Joan S. Davidson Samir Patel Affairs; New York State Council on the Gordon J. Davis, Esq. Arts, a state agency; National Endowment Design Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for the Arts; the New York City Council; Pentagram Sandra Grymes and the Manhattan Borough President. Arthur J. Humphrey, Jr. Printing George L. Knox Allied Printing Services The Studio Museum in Harlem is deeply Nancy L. Lane grateful to the following institutional do- Original Design Concept Dr. Michael L. Lomax nors for their leadership support: 2X4, Inc. Bernard I. Lumpkin Dr. Amelia Ogunlesi Studio is published two times a year Bloomberg Philanthropies Corine Pettey by The Studio Museum in Harlem, Booth Ferris Foundation Ann G. Tenenbaum 144 W. 125th St., New York, NY 10027. Ed Bradley Family Foundation John T. Thompson The Ralph and Fanny Ellison Reginald Van Lee Copyright ©2014 Studio Magazine. Charitable Trust Ford Foundation All rights, including translation into other Hon. Bill de Blasio, ex-officio The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation languages, are reserved by the publisher.
    [Show full text]
  • THE SUPPER CLUB the SUPPER CLUB What Does It Mean to Have a Seat at the Table? Antonio Cruz, Mickalene Thomas, Lina Puerta, Extension of Her Everyday Life
    THE SUPPER CLUB THE SUPPER CLUB What does it mean to have a seat at the table? Antonio Cruz, Mickalene Thomas, Lina Puerta, extension of her everyday life. A precedent Ask artist Elia Alba, and her many guests— LaToya Ruby Frazier, and Las Hermanas to Alba’s project is Carrie Mae Weems’ The artists and otherwise—who have attended Iglesias, among others. As Alba continued Kitchen Table Series (1990), begun in 1989 with the twenty-fiveSupper Club dinners over to approach other artists to sit for subsequent self-portraits representing women seated at the past five years, and that question will be portraits, she decided that hosting dinners the table, accompanied by text that intimately met with many different answers. Although was a way to give voice to those featured revealed their relationships and daily lives.1 Of the first meals took place in restaurants, in in the photographs. And so, a journey of the series, art historian Robin Kelsey writes: recent years the level of production for each dinners, discussions, and the staging of gathering has been formalized. For each portraits has evolved into a complex network “Kitchens and streets. You could write a dinner, Alba plans the menu and identifies a of relationships. Each dinner has hinged on history of the twentieth century through host—an artist, intellectual, or art historian specific conversations, concentrating on a that pairing. If the city street is a place with a keen understanding of current cultural range of themes, bringing new participants of random encounter, of hustle and protest, politics—who provides a prompt thematically to the table on subjects like Identity, Race, the kitchen is a place of intimate habit, framing the dinner conversation, to provoke and Baltimore, a Tribute to Freddie Gray; of sharing and aroma…The street presses a discussion about race and visual culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Art.Jobs.Lullabies a Solo Exhibition of Works by Kalup Linzy Exhibition Dates: April 2 – May 2, 2015 Opening Reception: Thursday, April 2Nd | 6­8Pm
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Kalup Linzy, W​ e People Who Are Darker Than Blue (Experimental Version) ​Still #7, 2015 Art.Jobs.Lullabies A solo exhibition of works by Kalup Linzy Exhibition Dates: April 2 – May 2, 2015 Opening Reception: Thursday, April 2nd | 6­8pm New York, NY (March 19, 2015) – Garis & Hahn is pleased to present A​ rt.Jobs.Lullabies,​ a presentation of new and recent music, video and mixed­media works by Kalup Linzy. This event marks the gallery’s first solo exhibition with the artist. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, April 2nd from 6 to 8 pm at 263 Bowery. New York based performance artist Kalup Linzy writes, directs, produces, and stars in several complexly interwoven soap opera serials that make up the artist’s best known video series’, including A​ s da Art World Might Turn ​and M​ elody Set Me Free. ​A dedicated performer with a background in choir and theater, Linzy has meticulously developed a cast of 22 characters he portrays since beginning the series in 2002. Riffing on a screenwriter’s tactic to ‘test’ roles in different scenarios, Linzy runs many of his characters through real world scenes, appearing as them for important performances, including his 2010 cameo on the veteran soap opera, General Hospital.​ His tragic, talented and naive alter­egos are often confronted with the harsh reality of the channels that control their art world success. Paradoxically, Linzy also plays the role of opportunistic and powerful vixens, who use and take what they want to get to the top. In drawing on semi­autobiographical material filtered through the gaudy, melodramatic treatment of a daytime soap, Linzy is able to simultaneously live out his fantasies and aesthetic pursuits, while also satirizing the art world establishment and realities he faces in his own practice and personal life.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry Is Not a Luxury:" Dis-Ing Self, Dis-Ing Archive
    Bard College Bard Digital Commons Senior Projects Spring 2018 Bard Undergraduate Senior Projects Spring 2018 "Poetry is Not a Luxury:" Dis-ing Self, Dis-ing Archive Ehm West Bard College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2018 Part of the Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation West, Ehm, ""Poetry is Not a Luxury:" Dis-ing Self, Dis-ing Archive" (2018). Senior Projects Spring 2018. 405. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2018/405 This Open Access work is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been provided to you by Bard College's Stevenson Library with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this work in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “Poetry Is Not a Luxury:” Dis-ing Self, Dis-ing Archive Senior Project submitted to the Division of the Arts of Bard College by Ehm West Annandale-on-Hudson, New York May 2018 Acknowledgements There are several people who have been important to this project. First and foremost, I would like to thank my mother who has inspired me as an educator, political accomplice, woman, organizer, mother and friend. Thank you for your endless support, solidarity and feedback over this past year.
    [Show full text]